Combes Burton – 25 October 2005

Robert A. DeAngelis, Maciej M. Markiewski, Rebecca Taub, John D. Lambris – 25 October 2005 – Despite the growing incidence of obesity, knowledge of how this condition, as well as associated steatosis, affects liver regeneration remains scarce. Many previous studies have used models of steatohepatitis or obesity induced by genetic alterations. In contrast, our studies on liver regeneration have focused on the effects of obesity resulting solely from high amounts of fat in the diet.

Oliviero Riggio, Cesare Efrati, Carlo Catalano, Federica Pediconi, Oriano Mecarelli, Neri Accornero, Francesca Nicolao, Stefania Angeloni, Andrea Masini, Lorenzo Ridola, Adolfo F. Attili, Manuela Merli – 25 October 2005 – Large spontaneous portal‐systemic shunts have been occasionally described in patients with cirrhosis. This study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of portal‐systemic shunts in patients with cirrhosis with recurrent or persistent hepatic encephalopathy (HE) as compared with patients with cirrhosis without HE.

Hongqun Liu, Samuel S. Lee – 25 October 2005

Darren J. Schofield, Birke Bartosch, Yohko K. Shimizu, Tobias Allander, Harvey J. Alter, Suzanne U. Emerson, François‐Loïc Cosset, Robert H. Purcell – 25 October 2005 – Active and/or passive immunoprophylaxis against hepatitis C virus (HCV) remain unachieved goals. Monoclonal antibodies might provide one approach to protection. We derived human monoclonal antibodies from the bone marrow of a patient with a well‐controlled HCV infection of 22 years duration.

Daniel Benten, Vinay Kumaran, Brigid Joseph, Jörn Schattenberg, Yury Popov, Detlef Schuppan, Sanjeev Gupta – 25 October 2005 – We investigated whether transplanted hepatocytes interact with hepatic stellate cells, as cell–cell interactions could modulate their engraftment in the liver. We transplanted Fischer 344 rat hepatocytes into syngeneic dipeptidyl peptidase IV–deficient rats.

Patrick Bertolino, Arnhild Schrage, David G. Bowen, Katja Klugewitz, Saeed Ghani, Katharina Eulenburg, Lauren Holz, Nancy Hogg, Geoffrey W. McCaughan, Alf Hamann – 25 October 2005 – We have previously shown that naïve CD8+ T cells recognizing their cognate antigen within the liver are retained and undergo activation in situ, independent from lymphoid tissues. Intrahepatic primary T cell activation results in apoptosis and may play a crucial role in the ability of the liver to induce tolerance.

Elisabetta Bugianesi, Arthur J. McCullough, Giulio Marchesini – 25 October 2005 – Insulin resistance (IR) is the pathophysiological hallmark of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease in Western countries. We review the definition of IR, the methods for the quantitative assessment of insulin action, the pathophysiology of IR, and the role of IR in the pathogenesis of chronic liver disease.

Torsten Wuestefeld, Christian Klein, Konrad L. Streetz, Naiara Beraza, Jürgen Schölmerich, Lawrence J. Burgart, Lars Zender, Stefan Kubicka, Gregory J. Gores, Michael P. Manns, Christian Trautwein – 25 October 2005 – Chronic cholestasis is associated with increased bacterial infections and sepsis resulting in higher mortality in humans. In the current study, we investigated the relevance of gp130‐dependent pathways after bile duct ligation (BDL). BDL was performed in conditional gp130 knockout (loxP/Cre system) mice and respective controls.

Burton Combes, Scott S. Emerson, Nancy L. Flye, Santiago J. Munoz, Velimir A. Luketic, Marlyn J. Mayo, Timothy M. McCashland, Rowen K. Zetterman, Marion G. Peters, Adrian M. Di Bisceglie, Kent G. Benner, Kris V. Kowdley, Robert L. Carithers, Leonard Rosoff, Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao, James L. Boyer, Thomas D. Boyer, Enrique J. Martinez, Nathan M. Bass, John R. Lake, David S. Barnes, Maurizio Bonacini, Karen L. Lindsay, A. Scott Mills, Rodney S. Markin, Raphael Rubin, A. Brian West, Donald E. Wheeler, Melissa J. Contos, Alan F.